Get Your Kicks on Route 66!

So, one of my dreams of travelling on the historic Route 66 finally came true! And even better, it was covered in snow!! Jonathan and I travelled up from Tucson through Phoenix and Flagstaff, over to Alberquerque, NM and to our final destination of Wichita Falls, TX on January 10 & 11. He has to stay at Sheppard AFB for about 6wks to do some training for his new job, and since I don't have a job or anything in Tucson, it was the perfect time for me to come hang out with my family (which I was super excited about so that I wouldn't have to spend all that time alone).

We decided to take the northern route to our destination because it was new scenery and only about an hour and a half more to travel....and boy was it worth it!! I was sooo excited that I couldn't sleep the night before we left, haha :p You shoulda seen me with my big-dog 35mm Cannon, my digital, Jonathan's digital, and both of our phone cameras taking pictures, haha...it was so funny. And Jonathan was so sweet to indulge me in stopping in the freezing cold (it got as low as 15F at one point in the mountains!!!) to take picutres :D

I was a little disappointed in the historic route at first because I didn't see a lot of the quirky-type things you hear about Route 66, but the beautiful snow made up for it. The route is actually not what we travelled on..we went on I-40 which replaced the route in the 1980s...and caused several small towns to shrivel up and die (like on the movie "Cars"). We saw several of these tiny towns pretty much deserted. My Momma's family's homeplace in Shamrock, TX is an example. Anyway, you could travel on the broken up parts of the route through little towns and see more stuff I'm sure, but the original route isn't connected anymore.

The land was so pretty, something you'd see in a western movie. We passed over Navajo, Hopi, and Apache land...which Jonathan thought as funny because the Apache were enemies of Cherokee which is what he is....but we saw tons of souvinir places for Indian artwork. And of course just like the trip out there, we saw billboards for 30miles advertising a souvinir place in the middle of nowhere...so, where do the people who work there live is what I want to know :p

We stayed in Alberquerque, NM on Saturday night, but didn't get to tour it since we got in at dark and left before sun-up on Sunday...maybe on our trip back we can do that. Sunday came through as far as the historic route goes because we got on the actual Route 66 off of the interstate to get some gas...and not only was it the route, but also was the point of the Continental Divide (that I missed a picture of when we were travelling to Tucson the first time). The divide is where water from the mountain flows to the west into the Pacific Ocean and to the east into the Atlantic Ocean...so that was really cool to see that landmark, actually just a plaque, nothing to see. But the part of the route we were on was a dead end, and you could still see the faint sign painted on the actual road, which was super cool!!

I'm so lucky to have been able to see and experience the western part of the US like I've always wanted to...and there's still so much to see and do out there! But this is at the top of the list :D

Here's the link to the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/greeneblog/GetYourKicksOnRoute66?authkey=QbFWyKessrU&feat=directlink